2022 was the last time the Competition Commission carried out a dawn raid, targeting insurance companies in the Western Cape and KZN. According to Norton Rose Fulbright

Dawn raids are an effective tool used by regulators to get firms to consider applying for leniency (an incentive for a firm that participates in cartel activity to terminate its participation and inform the Commission of the conduct). The first firm “through the door” (who fulfils certain requirements including providing the authority with information which will lead to the successful prosecution of the other cartelists) may receive immunity from the Commission for its participation in the conduct such that no administrative penalty will be imposed.

As far as I can tell, so far no fines were imposed on any of the insurers. Thin gruel. If you want something meatier, take a look at the taxi industry, although the idea of a dawn raid at the Bree Street Taxi Rank is a truly terrifying thought. Nerdy economists and lawyers fortifying themselves with polisiekoffie right before confronting the ugly face of real anti-competitive behaviour.

Researcher Mark Ingle in his 2009 paper notes:

Due to a welter of opportunities for corruption, however, [the taxi industry] has appropriated for itself many of the most negative aspects of the regulatory hand of the state and become a law unto itself. Whether the state can ever wrest control back from the industry is open to doubt. Notwithstanding the minibus taxi industry’s market being hobbled and distorted by the excess of anti-competitive practices which characterise its operations, and its apparent indifference to the convenience of its consumers, it nevertheless manages to thrive due to captive demand and the inability of the state and its organs to provide consumers with viable alternatives.

In 2017, the Commission held a market inquiry into the taxi industry and found, to name but a few:

• Illegal route monopolies: Associations prevent new entrants from operating on lucrative routes, charging exorbitant “joining fees” (R30,000–R120,000) to restrict market access.
• Regulatory capture: Provincial Regulatory Entities (PREs) and municipalities frequently defer to associations’ demands when issuing operating licences, creating artificial scarcity of permits.
• Violence as a tool: With associations using intimidation to maintain territorial control.

“The act of competitors coming together and agreeing to lower or raise prices is defined as horizontal price fixing. Under South Africa’s Competition Act, this is illegal. 

Despite this, it seems a meeting was held in Kokstad on 15 March 2021 between bus operators, taxi associations, officials from the Department of Transport (DOT) and the SAPS. 

In the meeting, which Ferreira [CEO of bus company, Intercape] said he did not attend but was briefed on by other bus operators, an agreement on fares was apparently reached. One of Ferreira’s managers insisted at a subsequent meeting on 8 April 2021 that it be placed on record that Intercape would not participate in price fixing as it was against the law.”

The taxi industry quite likes its price fixing and have killed one of Ferreira’s bus drivers and shot up his buses (with passengers inside!), to show just how much they dislike competition. The police told Ferreira to come to an agreement with the taxi bosses (he has refused). It is truly difficult to imagine another industry which is so blatantly anti-competitive with no consequences. The Competition Commission suggested subsidies rather than fines! Serious. Perhaps what was really required in the bread price fixing scandal was subsidies to the companies who were fixing the prices?

In 2017, Santaco reported

“that there were more than 200 000 minibus taxis operating in South Africa, generating an estimated R90 billion in annual revenue”

If we want money for transformation, then why not start the fund with a R9 billion contribution from the taxi industry?

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